Tag Archives: writing

So, my absence from Far Beyond Neverland was longer than intended. Finals went…alrightish. Since then, I’ve been busy with other things, like moving and job hunting. I’ll be living and going to school in Oklahoma now, and might be getting a job soon (fingers crossed). Things are looking up for my daily life, so far. So, now, I can get back with FBN, and all the wild and crazy fun that goes along with it.

I’m working my way through Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson, bit by bit. I’m also reading this lovely steampunk novella by Kady Cross, The Strange Case of Finley Jayne. When I finish it, I’ll post a review. Speaking of reviews, FBN needs more of them, don’t you think? I can’t promise something too frequent just yet, but I will aim for (at least) one to two a month for now. I saw “for now” because Camp NaNoWriMo is approaching, and I will be rewriting something from last year.

And, in regards to writing, PreCrisis will be continuing soon. It will resume it’s normally planned schedule of being updated on Fridays. In addition, there may be another serial joining FBN in the near future. Please, feel free to offer feedback on anything, constructive criticism can only help. ^_^

She woke to a silent world. Lying in bed, Alexia stared up sleepily at a shadow-covered ceiling, the only light present shining through a window. The alternating blue and green colors reflected the shadows of raindrops as they pelted the city. Lexi dozed on and off for a little while longer before eventually rolling over and planting her feet on the threadbare carpet. It was a muddy brown color, and made Lexi think of shit. It was laughable at times, a shit-colored carpet in a shithole of an apartment. That was life these days, endless shit.

Dressing quickly, she headed outside to find something to do. Sitting inside during the rain was boring, and only made her want to sleep. And, a person could only do so much sleep before they just rolled over and died. It took Lexi less than a second to realize what was wrong with the scene she stared at. The sky was blanketed by dark clouds, dropping buckets of rain down on the street. The drops were heavy, and Lexi was soon drenched in water. That was nothing that never happened before, though, she could deal.

The problem, however, was an obvious lack of people out and about. There were those who gave as big a fuck about water as Lexi did, and went outside anyway, but there wasn’t anyone anywhere. Unnerved, she set off down the street, intent on finding the reason behind it. As huge as the city was, SOMEONE had to be around. Yet, no matter where she went, there was nothing. There was no one. Even the nightclubs were silent, and that never happened. For hours, Lexi wandered the city, fear rising with every passing minute.

Passing under a dark archway to cut down an alley, she found herself in the middle of a deserted sunlit street. Turning around, the street stretched off behind her, with no sign of the alley. Facing back to the front, Lexi walked down the road, just as empty as it had been before. The noise of the rain had been replaced, however, with that of children playing. She couldn’t see them, but she could hear them, and the sight of a familiar building told her where she was.

The apartment building was a small construction of brown stone, the stones darkened by age. Standing at the steps that led up to the front door, Lexi placed a hand on the iron banister, walking slowly up to the building. Inside was a dim hallway, lined with doors on either side. In the center of the hall’s ceiling was an opening, where one could look through to other floors. At the very rear of the building stood a staircase, where Lexi ascended to find a firefight. The sunlight was gone, replaced with darkness, spotlights the only thing lighting the hallway. A shout from the opposite end of the hallway drew her attention too late, and a bullet sent her careening back down the staircase. Time seemed to slow down as she fell, until she landed with a heavy thump on the brown carpet of her apartment.

“It’s one o’ clock in the city, and things are looking gorgeous out there, aren’t they?”

Blinking bleary-eyed, Lexi focused on the blaring television with a small degree of difficulty, sleep still clinging to her brain. Rising to her feet, she looked down at her chest, feeling around for the bullet hole she was pretty damn certain had been there a minute ago. Finally, she took a breath, calming down as she sunk back down onto the bed.

“A dream?” she muttered, yawning. “Fucking real for a dream.”

With another yawn, Lexi fell backwards, cuddling up to her pillow. More sleep was in order before she had to report in for work, but a ringing phone saw fit to disturb her attempts.

“’Lo?” she said, not even bothering to see who it was calling. There weren’t a great deal of people on that list of potentially-on-the-other-end. There was her friend Dragonfly, her sister Nicole, and…

“Heeey, Lexi, you’re up finally!”

Lexi heaved a silent sigh. “Snipe, how’ve you been? Haven’t heard from you in fucking forever.”

“Oh, you know, same old same old. Had some stuff to handle for the boss, went off-planet a while.”

“Oh? Where’d you go this time?”

“Eh, just Silica, like usual. Anyway, I’m back in town a while. Wanna hang sometime today?”

Lexi rolled her eyes. Sniper wasn’t a bad guy exactly, but he was often around some really unsavory types. He was a runner for some gang or other – there were a bunch – and it wasn’t something Lexi wanted to get associated with. But, Snipe had a good heart, so she humored the guy sometimes.

The mention of the Anniversary quieted the male on the other end of the phone. Neither of them said anything for several moments, before Sniper broke the silence.

“Oh. Right. Yeah, I remember,” Sniper sighed. “How could I ever forget? I guess if we don’t do anything else today, I might see you there.”

Lexi managed a half-smile. “Yeah. Maybe.”

The line clicked, the dull drone of the dial tone humming in her ear. Slowly, she let her arm fall from her head, the phone coming to rest in her lap. With the push of a button, it was off, and she left it there on the bed while she went to get dressed. A black and white striped long-sleeved shirt, black pants with a black and white checkered design on the bottom of one leg, and black and white sneakers served as the day’s outfit, completed by a black short sleeved jacket. Outside, she stared up at the sky. The occasional cloud dotted the pale blue, and she shook her head as she trudged off down the street. Today was not a day for such a happy sky.

~You must post the rules
~Post eleven facts about yourself on the blog post
~Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
~Tag eleven bloggers, however, you can break the rules and tag fewer people if you want. Make sure you hyperlink their names/blogs.
~Let them know you’ve tagged them!
~Have fun!

Yep. Always write it down lest you forget it. There was some epic dialogue I thought of once in the shower, and I never wrote it down when I got out. Cue me trying to remember how it went. What I came up with later is nowhere near as awesome as the original incarnation.

8) Of the last, say, ten books you read, which did you like best and why?

The first Wheel of Time book was pretty good. Nice set up and whatnot.

9) Around how many books are on your to-read list right now?

Ergh. Um. A lot. Seriously, loads.

10) What is your favourite book-to-film adaptation?

The Harry Potter movies.

11)How often do you listen to music while writing?

All the time. I never leave home without a portable music player. And headphones, one must never forgot headphones.

It’s April, and we all know what that means! Unless you don’t, in fact, know what April means. No, I’m not talking about the Mayflower, I’m talking about the Frenzy. The Script Frenzy, to be precise. Midnight April 1st is when this hip little shindig kicked off, and yours truly is working on two scripts at once. This might end up being three, I don’t know yet. Anyway, my page count so far is 14/100, but I intend on trying for a hundred pages for each script. So, that 100 pages could end up being anywhere between 200 and 300 by the end of April. I hope. *fingers crossed*

I other news, Cartoon Network played the best April Fool’s Joke in the history of everything. They showed some Saturday night Toonami, and played classic anime from back when. It was the most amazing night, my inner child jumped for joy. It makes me want to hope that (maybe) Cartoon Network will start getting itself back together and bring Toonami back for real, but time will tell.

So, I’ve been making myself write everyday with 750words.com. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a sort-of writing challenge where you have to write 750 words every day. It’s roughly three handwritten pages of anything. It’s helped me a good deal with figuring out some of the plot elements for The Sunset Trilogy (which may or may not get renamed again). Anyway, you get points of varying number, badges for certain things, it’s really cool in my opinion. I had a lovely streak going – nine days, I believe – and I forgot to write the day before yesterday. I was so close to getting whatever badge it was for going ten nights in a row (there’s a different one for mornings), and now I’ve got to rebuild my streak. Ah well.

Go to Your Favorite Music Player. Dig out your digital music collection.

Maybe this is iTunes or Spotify, or use Pandora if you’d rather go that way.

Hit SHUFFLE, then “Play.”

Translation: pull up a random song.

The title to this song is the title to your story.

Use the song for inspiration, too, if you feel so inclined.

The siren blared throughout the complex, drawing soldiers from every corner. Hand in hand, they ran as fast as they could, hoping to get to the shuttle hanger before they were caught. Arrest meant death, and they were determined to survive.

“There they are!” the shout echoed down the steel hallway, the pair sprinting down a side passage as gunfire rained on the space they’d been standing in less than a second before. It wouldn’t be very long before the soldiers rounded the corner, and there was nowhere to duck if they were shot at.

“We’re going to die,” she said, gasping. Her legs burned from exertion, but terror refused to let her stop.

“No,” he replied, fingers tightening around her hand in a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll make it. I promised you, and I intend to keep this one.”

A bullet flew by her ear, barely missing her. She choked back a sob, afraid to look back. If it wasn’t for him, driving her on, she didn’t think she would still be moving. For that, she was thankful. They were together, and whether they lived or died, it would be together.

“There it is,” he said, her eyes moving in the direction his finger pointed. A large door stood ahead of them, the letters painted above the door reading HANGAR, with UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY NOT PERMITTED underneath. With his only free hand, he dug through his pocket, pulling out a white keycard. He shielded her as they slowed, swiping the card quickly through the reader next to the door. The red light on the card reader stayed red.

“What the hell?” he muttered, brow furrowing in worry as he turned to look at the soldiers rounding the bend, lining up to offer no chance of escape back the way they came. He pressed himself closer to her, glaring at the armed men ready to end both of their lives.

“Drop the card,” one of them said. He didn’t move, he remained still as a statue as he eyed them, his hand hovering just above the reader. “Drop it, now.”

Without a word, he looked from the soldiers to her, hand tightening around hers once again.

He was keeping this promise or was going to die trying.

The card went down, followed closely by gunshots. This time, the light turned green, and the doors opened. Running through, he grit his teeth in pain, crimson leaking from several places. The bullets burned like acid when they’d entered, and he knew then his fate was now sealed. Though, he found it didn’t seem to matter all that much. Her smile was worth everything.

Her eyes widened at the sight of him, fear rising in her mind. Please let him be okay, she thought, praying to whatever god was listening. Hopefully, one of the nice ones could hear her. Hopefully, they would answer.

The shuttle they ran to was small, with a sleek and elegant design. They narrowly avoided another round of gunfire as they scrambled inside, locking the door behind them. Once they were safe behind thick metal, she fell to her knees, exhausted. He, however, kept moving to the cockpit. A coughing fit halted him, and he used the wall for support until he recovered enough to continue. She didn’t need to see his bloodstained hand to know what it meant.

“Come on, you need to buckle up.”

She raised her head, looking towards the cockpit. He was leaning heavily against the pilot’s chair, staring at her. He looked just as tired as she felt, with a few touches of other things mixed in. Pain was first among them.

Rising to her feet, she walk forwards, taking the seat next to his and pulling the seatbelt together. He strapped in as well, punching in commands on a keyboard.

“Initiating start-up sequence,” the ship’s automated voice said. The engines came to life, making the metal hum with energy. “Commencing take off.”

The shuttle rose, joltingly at first, but soon evened out. They began moving forward, to the open doors through which they could see the midnight sky, and the unnumbered stars beyond.

“It’s really space,” she said, staring at the black in wonder. They were going to make it after all.

“I told you I’d keep my promise, didn’t I?” he replied, voice strained. He was trying to block the pain from his mind and focus on piloting the ship, but the iron bullets wreaked continual havoc on his body. Elves were never meant for such a technological world. There were no forests. Hell could have him, so long as she could see real trees.

“Let’s find our home,” he said, the shuttle picking up speed as it took to the air. Breaking through the atmosphere, they kept on, set on getting as far from that metal-covered rock as fast as they could.

She stared in wonder at the void around them, amazed at the sight. Relaxing in her seat, she smiled, joyful drops falling from her eyes.

“Thank you,” she said, turning to look over at him. He was slumped over in the seat, head leaning to the right. She called out to him.

Jacksonville-based writing group Inkwell Imaginings does a weekly writing workshop. This past Friday, they had an in-depth discussion on the Hero’s Journey. A recording of the workshop is available for viewing on Youtube.